Nicolas Mahler

Nicolas Mahler (2014)

Nicolas Mahler (* 1969 in Vienna ) is an Austrian comic artist .

life and work

Mahler draws for Austrian, German and Swiss newspapers, magazines and anthologies. In recent years he has published over twenty books, mainly in France , Canada and the USA . His Flaschko - comics have been adapted as cartoons and ran on various short film festivals in Europe . His comic strip Kratochvil was performed as a puppet play in Switzerland, Austria and France. In 2003, together with Rudi Klein and Heinz Wolf , he founded the Kabinett für Wort und Bild in Vienna's Museumsquartier .

Mahler produced several adaptations of literature in comic form, including Old Masters (based on the novel of the same name by Thomas Bernhard ), Alice in Sussex (based on Alice in Wonderland ) and The Man Without Qualities (based on the novel by Robert Musil ). In addition to his fictional stories, Mahler published autobiographical comics in the volumes Art Theory versus Frau Goldgruber , Die Unutungen der Moderne , Pornographie und Sumord as well as Franz Kafka's Nonstop Lachmaschine , in which he processed his sometimes absurd experiences in everyday life and in the comic scene.

In 2013 he was a member of the jury for the award The Extraordinary Book of the children and youth program of the Berlin International Literature Festival .

Mahler has been known to German readers since 2006 through his publications in the satirical magazine Titanic . From 2014 to 2016 he also published in the monthly magazine Chrismon . Nicolas Mahler lives in Vienna.

style

Mahler's style is characterized by an extremely reduced stroke with which he captures eccentric characters. The reasoning behind the 2006 Max and Moritz Prize states:

Nicolas Mahler's characters have no eyes, no ears, no mouths - but they undoubtedly have character. Mahler always succeeds in getting his few lines to the point with minimalist drawings and marginal humor. He oscillates virtuously between banal, absurd and Kafkaesque.

Awards

• 1999 ICOM Independent Comic Prize - Special Prize ("Flaschko: The Man in the Electric Blanket" and "TNT: A Boxer Story")
• 2006 Max and Moritz Prize for the best German-language comic ("Das Unbehagen")
• 2007 German Caricature Prize , "Winged Pencil" in silver
• 2008 Max and Moritz Prize for the best comic strip ("Flaschko - The man in the electric blanket")
• 2010 Max and Moritz Prize awarded as the best German-speaking comic artist
• 2013 Sepp Schellhorn Scholarship
• 2015 Prize of the Literature Houses

Publications

• TNT: A boxer story. ISBN 978-3-9500656-4-0 .
• Lone racer. 1999, ISBN 2-84414-029-7 (French first edition L'Association; English at Top Shelf 2006; German at Reprodukt 2012).
• Lame Ryder. 2001, ISBN 3-931377-74-1 .
• slightly damaged animals. 2002, ISBN 3-9500656-5-2 .
• Art theory versus Mrs. Goldgruber. 2003, ISBN 3-85266-221-4 .
• Kratochvil. 2004, ISBN 3-907055-78-0 .
• The discomfort. Humor drawings. 2005, ISBN 3-907055-95-0 .
• The demands of modernity. Reprodukt, Berlin 2007.
• Van Helsing turns blue. 2008, ISBN 978-3-938511-98-5 (German version of Van Helsing's Night Off. ISBN 1-891830-38-4 ).
• The Herrenwitz Variations. Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2008.
• Newt. Luftschacht, Vienna 2008 (draftsman: Heinz Wolf ).
• Lengths and cuts. Air shaft, Vienna 2009.
• SPAM. Reprodukt, Berlin 2009.
• Engelmann: The fallen angel. Carlsen Verlag, Hamburg 2010.
• Pornography and Suicide. Reprodukt, Berlin 2010.
• Old Masters , Comedy by Thomas Bernhard , Andreas Platthaus (Ed.): Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-46293-5 .
• What are we missing? Cartoons for doctors and patients. Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-03731-071-7 .
• Alice in Sussex. in the features section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . from November 6, 2012.
• Alice in Sussex. Text and illustration: Nicolas Mahler. Suhrkamp 2013, ISBN 978-3-518-46386-4 .
• My therapist is a psycho. Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-03731-116-5 .
• The man without qualities. Graphic novel based on Robert Musil. Suhrkamp, ​​2013, ISBN 978-3-518-46483-0 .
• Poems. With an afterword by Raimund Fellinger (= Insel-Bücherei . 1385). Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-458-19385-2 .
• The small talk hell. Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-03731-127-1 .
• Loft find . Poems. Luftschacht Verlag, Vienna 2015, ISBN 978-3-902844-54-5 .
• The big bang . Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-03731-141-7 .
• We'll all look old in the future , Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-03731-159-2
• In the isolation cell . Poems. Luftschacht Verlag, Vienna 2017, ISBN 978-3-903081-10-9 .
• Comic adaptation based on Marcel Proust : In search of lost time . Suhrkamp, ​​2017, ISBN 978-3-518-46808-1 .
• The little illiteracy. Liessmann for illiterate people (with Konrad Paul Liessmann ). Zsolnay, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-552-05912-2 .
• The ritual. Reprodukt, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-95640-165-7
• We need to talk . Ed. Moderne, Zurich 2019, ISBN 978-3-03731-188-2
• Ulysses . Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-518-47006-0

Flaschko

• Flaschko, the man in the electric blanket. Demon ladies liqueur. 2002, ISBN 3-907055-63-2 .
• Flaschko, the man in the electric blanket. The pneumonia. 2007, ISBN 978-3-03731-021-2 .
• Flaschko, the man in the electric blanket. The garbage sect. 2009, ISBN 978-3-03731-047-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mahler in chrismon Monthly comics by Nicolas Mahler in chrismon
2. ↑ Der Standard from June 6, 2010: Erlangen Comic Salon - Austrian illustrators win prizes

Web links

Commons : Nicolas Mahler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Nicolas Mahler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Nicolas Mahler's website
• Kabinett für Wort und Bild, Vienna
• Tim O'Shea: Nicolas Mahler: Q&A. Comics Bulletin, February 16, 2004, archived from the original on November 21, 2008 ; accessed on December 28, 2013 (English, interview). 
• Interview with Nicolas Mahler (2005). Pictopia, May 12, 2008, accessed December 28, 2013 (interview). 
• Interview (04/09) with Nicolas Mahler at the ComicRadioShow
• Review of Mahler's literary adaptation by Thomas Bernhard "Alte Meister"
• Interview (08/2015) with Nicolas Mahler on graphic novels